city today
PURVA MEHRA
M ICROSOFT Word, Excel and PowerPoint may be child’s play to most, but for
visually impaired Tanya Balsara it was all Greek. Learning Microsoft’s
simpler software’s was a real milestone for her seven years ago, and now she
runs her own institute, Tanya Computer Centre at Jogeshwari.
A fresh graduate from St. Xavier’s College in Sociology, Balsara started
scouting for pursuits to fill up her time. Although the prospect of learning
computers was daunting at first she enrolled for the Indian Association for
the Visually Handicapped (IAVH), Churchgate, for a basic course in Microsoft
Office and the Internet.
“I even did a course in Announcing, Broadcasting, Compering and Dubbing
(ABCD) from Xavier’s Institute of Communications and helped dad at his ad
agency,” says 27-year-old Balsara.
Ever since the completion of the computer course, Balsara decided that
computer literacy is a must for the visually challenged. “Knowledge of
computers itself is such a boon and if it makes you eligible for a job then
it’s a win-win situation,” says Balsara. So, with help from her father, ad
man Sam Balsara, she started her computer insti tute recently.
The Institute started at the MNB Industrial Home for the Blind in July 2005
as a basic course in Microsoft Word and Excel, but within a year became one
of the first institutions to get certified by the Maharashtra State
Certificate for IT (MSCIT) in February 2007. “This certificate makes people
eligible to government jobs and it’s a shorter, more advanced course on
Microsoft Access, Frontpage and Outlook,” Balsara informs.
Balsara herself teaches the basic course to a Class IX students that follows
a duration of nine months, while the new MSCIT batch that will begin later
this month will also have an external tutor for the 20 students employed.
“Our only criterion for enrolling students is that they have a workable
knowledge of English because we use JAWS, a screenreader software that
requires a decent understanding of English,” says Balsara, who generally
encourages her students to undergo the basic course before they opt for the
MSCIT.
When she’s not busy coaching her 17 to 56-year-old students on computer
friendliness, Balsara spends her time unwinding over pop and retro music,
chatting on Orkut, reading online newspapers, attending concerts and being a
radio junkie.
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